In Today's Case: Protecting Her, Part 2

"Don't let him get me… please…" Christy begged softly. Tess rubbed her back as she pulled Christy away.

"Don't worry about a thing. I won't let him hurt you." Tess told her. Christy nodded her head and smiled as she wiped away a tear that dripped down her face. "Would you like to sleep with me tonight?" Tess asked.

"Yeah." Christy answered. Tess smiled. She turned her head and saw Conan.

"Christy, this is Conan." Tess said introducing Christy to Conan.

"Hi." Conan greeted.

"Hi Conan." Christy greeted back. Christy smiled. Tess looked at the clock to see it was about six o'clock. She looked back at the little girl and smiled.

"Are you hungry?" Tess asked. Christy nodded her head. Tess stood upright as she grabbed onto her crutch and slipped it underneath herself. "I'll make something for you. Come on." Tess held out her hand. Christy hesitated but she took Tess's hand and they both walked down the hall and into the kitchen.

"Now, why can't she be that nice all the time?" Richard asked. Darien smiled.

"Why can't you act smart?" Darien answered with a question. Richard glared at Darien as his smile was quickly wiped off of his face.

That night, Christy slept in the same bed as Tess. Both of them slept soundly. Tess kept her gun close to the bed; actually, she kept it underneath her pillow with her hand on the barrel of the gun as she slept.

Christy wasn't really asleep. She was lying on her side trying not to fall asleep. She didn't feel safe. Even if she did know she was sleeping in the same bed as an America FBI Agent. But she still didn't feel safe.

She suddenly felt hot and needed a drink. She got out of bed and crept out of the room quietly closing the door behind her. She walked into the kitchen quietly grabbing a cup from the dishwasher. She then got up onto her tip toes and reached out turning on the fosset to the sink. She turned around about to take a drink from the water she had gotten. But then her body froze stiff.

"AH!" she screamed as she dropped the cup and the glass broke all over the floor. Tess jumped in her bed pulling out her gun as Rachel woke up. Tess turned and looked behind her to see where Christy would've been laying but she wasn't there.

"Christy!" Tess flipped her blankets off of her and ran out of her room with a limp.

"Tess!" Rachel called following behind her. Tess entered the kitchen. She saw the glass shining in the moonlight as a figure of what looked like a man held Christy tight in his grip. His hands wrapped around her throat squeezing tightly. Tess pointed her gun up into the air and shot two rounds.

The man holding onto Christy ducked ashe dropped her onto the ground. Christy coughed placing her hand onto her throat lightly rubbing it. He turned and looked to see Tess standing there with her gun pointing at him.

"Step away from the girl." Tess ordered. Rachel, Darien, Conan, and Richard now stood behind her. The man stood there staring at them. Christy sat there on the floor coughing as Tess took a step forward. "Do you think I'm kidding?" Tess asked.

"This girl's seen something that she should've seen." The man stated to Tess. Tess pulled the hammer back with her thumb.

"Back… away." Tess said again. The figure of the man stood there near Christy not moving. Christy began to crawl towards Tess as the figure then placed their foot onto her back. Tess gripped the gun tightly in her hands as she watched the figure suddenly pull something out of their back pocket.

A gun.

'Great… just what I need…' Tess thought to herself.

"Now, you drop your gun and kick it here." The man ordered. Tess growled. But thenshe gave up. She dropped her gun onto the floor and kicked it over to him with her crutch. The man picked up the gun as he held it pointed right at Tess.

Tess began to nudge Conan with her crutch. He looked up at her. Tess moved her head towards the counter. He looked up onto the counter to see the steak knives. He didn't know what Tess was thinking to use those but it must be a good thing.

Tess then dropped her crutch. Conan suddenly knew what to do. He bent down and pressed the button on his shoe. He pulled his leg back then… BAM! He kicked the crutch and it went right into the man's chest knocking him back. In the mean time Tess grabbed onto a knife on the counter and threw it. The knife entered the man's shoulder causing him to drop Tess's gun.

Darien ran up and grabbed onto Christy, which was a gusty move. He turned and ran back when the man shot his gun off. Darien came to a sudden stop. Tess's eyes widened as did everyone else's. Christy had her head buried in Darien's shoulder.

"Don't move!" the man shouted ripping the knife out of his shoulder. Darien didn't move. Luckily, he wasn't hit. He had fired a warning shot. Darien turned his head to see the man walking towards him. Christy gripped Darien's shirt tightly as she clenched her eyes shut. "Put her down." Then man ordered.

Darien's grip became tighter around Christy.

"Drop her! NOW!" then man shouted firing another warning shot. Darien didn't move. He didn't place Christy down. He held onto her tightly. Another shot was fired. No one moved.

The man didn't see Conan crawling on the floor reaching for Tess's gun. He finally grabbed a hold of it without the man noticing him.

"TESS!" Conan cried out. Tess lifted her hand into the air. Conan whipped his body around and threwher gun. In the mean time the man noticed him. He grabbed onto the back of his neck throwing him to the side then behind him.

But Tess had her gun in her hands. She fired two shots. The man ducked and ran out of the kitchen and out the door. Tess would've followed him but she couldn't move. Tess's foot bothered her extremely bad, and that she was to worried about Christy and Darien.

"Christy… Darien… you guys alright?" Tess asked. Darien's head moved in the dark.

"Yeah… we're okay." Darien answered.

"Conan!" Rachel raced past Darien to see Conan sitting up slowly with his hand on his head. "Are you all right?" Rachel asked.

Conan nodded his head, "yeah, I'm fine Rachel." Rachel engulfed Conan in a gigantic bear hug. Tess limped up to Darien and Christy using the counter as support. Christy turned her head and looked at Tess.

"Christy…" Tess began, "it's about time you told us who this murderer is." Tess said to her. Christy looked away without a word. Tess sighed. She knew that she wasn't going to get anything out of this shocked and scared little girl.

Tess reached down grabbing onto her crutch placing it back into its proper place, as her supporter. Darien placed Christy down onto the floor. Christy shook. You could see it through the darkness in the room. Tess got down onto her knee.

"Don't worry Christy… he's gone okay?" Tess said trying to sooth her. Christy nodded her head slowly.

"O-okay." Christy answered. Tess took her hand and then picked her up placing her onto her hip as she limped back into the room. Tess placed Christy into the bed and covered her. Tess looked at Christy as she shook in fear at what had just happened.

"Christy, you go to sleep… I'll stay up alright?" Tess asked. Christy nodded her head as she rolled onto her side. Rachel entered the room seeing Tess sitting on the side of the bed holding her gun.

Rachel watched as Tess unloaded her gun seeing that she didn't have that much bullets left. She then reached forward to the drawer in the nightstand. She pulled it out picking up a refill of bullets. She placed it into the gun as she slammed her hand onto the bottom of the refiller.

"Are you really going to stay up all night?" Rachel asked. Tess nodded her head.

"Yeah." Tess answered. "And this time. I'm lock loaded and ready for him to come back." Tess added.

Rachel sighed. She crawled into bed and got underneath the covers.

Soon everyone again was asleep in the apartment, except for Tess that is. She was sitting up in bed wide awake listening and watching. Her gun was in her hand tightly. She glanced back at Christy a few times to make sure she was still asleep.

She then heard something being knocked over. Tess looked at her closed door. She stood up slowly trying not to wake up Christy. She left her crutch by the bed and limped to the door. She opened it slowly.

'He can't be this dumb to come back here after what had happened.' Tess thought to herself. She opened the door a crack. She then saw nothing. She looked around, not wanting to open the door any wider then it already was in case he was waiting for her.

She turned and looked at Rachel. She was still sleeping. She then looked over in the next bed to see that Christy was also still sleeping. She then looked forward out the crack again.

Still there was nothing.

She then closed the door. She felt a cold breeze in the room. She turned and faced the window. It was open. Tess looked around in the dark room. She stared at Christy making sure she was okay. Tess pulled herself into the dark corner. She watched as a figure in the shadows moved toward Christy. Tess held her gun out. She watched as the hand of the figure came down onto Christy's mouth.

BANG!

Rachel woke up with an instant. Tess appeared out of the dark corner as the figure fell onto the floor. Christy got up out of bed and ran over to Rachel and hopped into her bed. Rachel wrapped her arms around her. Tess limped towards her bed.

"Tess-…"

"Shh!" Tess said glancing at Rachel. Rachel just nodded her head. Tess walked over to the nightstand and turned on the lamp. She then limped around her bed pointing her gun at the man. She could now see him.

He had brown hair and blue eyes. He was well built and tall. He gripped his right shoulder tightly as blood seeped through his dark blue shirt. His black pants faded a little bit in the light. Tess pointed her gun at him as he looked at Tess.

"Please… don't shoot me." He begged. Tess's bedroom door swung open. In came Richard, Conan, and Darien. Rachel stood up with Christy in her arms tightly. Tess looked over at them. Once she looked at them the man lunged upward smacking Tess's gun out of her hands as it went off. He wrapped his hands around Tess's throat tightly. He pressed her up against the wall as he shook her violently. Tess's eyes began to roll in the back of her head as she gripped the man's wrist tightly.

Richard has ran forward grabbing onto Tess's gun. "Leave my niece alone!" Richard shouted. He began to shoot violently. The man's body jerked as he dropped Tess. Tess slid down the wall as the man fell back onto the floor with his blood pouring out of his body.

The room was silent except for Tess's coughing as her lungs filled with air finally. Richard tossed Tess's gun onto the floor as he turnedto look at his niece. He got down in front of her placing his hand onto her shoulder.

"You alright?" Richard asked. Tess nodded her head.

"Yeah…" Tess answered as she broke out into coughing again. Richard stood upright as he walked over to Christy.

"Christy… it's about time that you tell us who that is." Richard said. Christy looked at the feet of the man. The rest of his body was being covered by Tess's bed.

"He's my brother…" Christy answered.

Next Time on Case Closed: "How's the antidote coming?" One night, Ai goes missing. And it's up to Tess, Conan, and Dr Agasa to find her. The problem is that, they don't know where to look or who could've taken her. They fear that this case might grow cold and Ai might be dead. But… one of them gets a shocking phone call that could determine Ai's fate.

Next Time: Ai's Disappearance

Next Conan's Hint: Phone Call